Honestly, why haven’t you read Part One?! Oh well, perhaps you have your reasons. In which case, please read Part One here, before diving into Trident reviews surf logo’s Part Two:
O’ Neill.
The OG wetsuit brand. The entire surf world (and watersports in general) owe an unpayable debt to Jack O’ Neill. Bless this one eyed genius, may his innovative soul be barrelled for eternity. So yep, he pretty much got wetsuit tech to where it is today.
Now, as for the logo. Very clearly another abstracted wave, not as much as Quiksilver’s logo, but more illustrative than Rip Curl’s abstract version, but clearly a wave nonetheless. And therein lies the rub – what could have been a supremely innovative logo way back now assumes a kind of generic surf graphic identity. Through no fault of the brand mind you. Unfortunately though, the O’ Neill logo has kinda gotten lost amongst other, later surf brands probably far less innovative and of potentially dubious quality. Why? Coz surf brands tend to use, er waves as their iconography. Not O’ Neill’s fault though, so rounded to four outta five stars.
Patagonia.
This newish wetsuit brand touts itself as super sustainable and environmentally conscious. Good on yer, chaps. However, this sustainability comes at a cost. Both a literal cost (Patagonia is bliksems expensive, regardless of where in the world you buy the suits), and apparently also at the cost of functionality. So, these suits are both more expensive and of lesser performance than other brands. Sign me the heck up – not.
However, we jest somewhat. We fully believe in sustainability at Trident, but we’ll wait for their tech to improve before we get ourselves a bamboo shoot 4/3 that dissolves in water above 12 degrees Celsius. Until then though, the Patagonia logo. Classy, minimalist and subtle. All great attributes for stylish, quality branding. However, as a surf brand, it’s says “surfing” about as much as a wood varnish company. Therefore, a 4 for its quality design – but combined with its utter lack of distinction as a surf logo – that’s a 2.5. We’ll generously round it somewhere in the middle at 3.5. The alternate version of Patagonia’s logo with a flying fish carrying a – ahem – trident – is kiff though. So maybe a 4, provided they use that logo more often?
Okay, so it seems most surf brands we’ve discussed are related to wetsuits. We’ve covered some of the biggest wetsuit brands at length, so let’s look at some other components of the surf branding machine.
Channel Islands.
A very, very, VERY abstract visualisation of the actual Channel Islands off California. Well, that’s our take on it at least, because if the iconic CI logo of 3 stacked hexagons is anything but abstracted, existing islands – it’s kinda odd. Not utterly deranged, just odd. Trident can say with confidence and minimal bias however, that many of our local South African surfboard logo’s are way better though. Thus, we give CI a respectable but underwhelming 3.
Pyzel.
Actually a very cool, decent logo. Our only criticism, similar to our points on Patagonia, Pyzel’s logo doesn’t necessarily encapsulate surfing as it stands. However, this logo has just enough whimsy and playful irreverence to make its very over utilised star symbol kinda less run of the mill that it might have been. We really want to rate it higher, but let’s try and be fair and go with a solid 3.5.
Lost/Mayhem.
Of the big three US surf brands (CI, Pyzel and Matt Biolos’s Mayhem), we like this name the best. However, we’re still kinda confused about what is Lost… and what is Mayhem, and what is Lost/Mayhem. We doubt we’re alone in that. Nevertheless, the logo (logo’s?) itself are pretty cool. Somehow though, the branding is undemanding. And yes – once again, slightly disconnected from surfing. If one were slightly stupid and/or overly imaginative (Trident claims both), Mayhem’s logo could be some kak death metal band’s logo. That alone gives it an extra star, balanced out by regardless of how iconic Lost… may be, it’s still difficult for it to scream “surf brand”. A fair 3.
There. Are. So Many. Other. Surf brands though.
So let’s hustle through a few more before calling it a day.
DHD’s logo is rad, if again a little generic for surfing. Well designed for sure, but DHD could just as well be a courier company, or a brand of men’s grooming products. A decent 3.5 Sharp Eye looks like it was designed with a Sharpie by a first year architecture student, arrogant enough to believe their skills in building designs applies to all designs. A generous 2. Firewire has a kinda cool font, with a weirdly abstract, what, F? It could be a logo for a creatine powder company. Thoughtful, but nah – not the best – a fully middle of the road 2.5 for Firewire. Then, Hayden Shapes is too similar to Island Style for us to write it off as coincidence (raised eyebrow emoji) . Still we’ll give Hayden Shapes the benefit of the doubt instead of citing copyright laws and give them 2.5 for bring copycats.
Shoot us a message who we missed, shot brah’s.
